


An Exercise In Frustration

by Asymptotical



Series: Fandom: Star Wars - The Old Republic [11]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Background Implied Scourge/Female Jedi Knight, M/M, Mental Time Travel, Sith dating is questionable at best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:08:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27344065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asymptotical/pseuds/Asymptotical
Summary: Theron always assumed that if he got the chance to do things over, he would instantly have a lot of things he could fix.The reality was a lot more frustrating.
Relationships: Theron Shan/Male Sith Warrior
Series: Fandom: Star Wars - The Old Republic [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2132868
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41
Collections: Fic In A Box





	An Exercise In Frustration

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wednesday](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wednesday/gifts).



Theron didn't have any transition time between waking up and realizing that he had somehow travelled through time. 

Mostly because a few moments ago, he _hadn't been asleep_. He had been in the middle of an argument with Lana and then suddenly here he was, waking up back in an apartment that he knew _very_ well. An apartment that he hadn't seen for years and had never expected to see again because that whole area had been destroyed in the war with Arcann. 

So that left a few options, almost all of which he could rule out very quickly via either situational analysis or using his implants to ensure his surroundings were actually his surroundings. 

This was either a manufactured dream of some sort (an increasingly unlikely prospect) or he had literally woken up many years back in time. 

* * *

It took him half a day to verify beyond any doubt that this was time travel. There were no markers of force interference, he was too lucid for it to be the result of drugging, and any other sort of technological scenario would have been something he could ID or snap himself out of using his implants. So, time travel. 

Not the weirdest thing that Theron had ever dealt with. He was pretty sure that said some unfortunate things about his life and choices. 

The frustrating part was how little he could actually do with it. There were mistakes that Theron could avoid making, there was information he could drop to help other people avoid making mistakes, there were a few things he could fix...but it was impossible to tell what fix might send everything spinning off into uncertainty. 

Sure, he could contact the Jedi and explain the whole situation and maybe convince them not to kill the emperor, but that would just mean that they would have a continuing war, headed by the Sith emperor, with no idea what he was going to do or how Zakuul might play into it. 

There was also a part of him that knew that if he went to the Jedi he'd become their font of information on the future, which would make manipulating things on his own terms significantly harder if not impossible. 

* * *

Theron's first few months on the redo track were spent doing exactly what he would have done the first time. He had another Dark Lord to murder who needed to be gone to clear the way for someone who would be willing to work with Empress Acina later, assuming everything else happened. He had other smaller missions that had to be completed because literal lives were depending on them. He had not so urgent things that had to be done because not doing them would seem suspicious to people who knew him. 

Effective use of time travel to enact change, it turned out, was harder than it looked. 

He ended up with two mental lists. One of things that he could change, and one of people that he needed to consider contacting. 

The second list was short and unfortunately limited to force users. They were more likely to assume visions or strange messages or even time travel if they noticed he had information he shouldn't. Non force users wouldn't usually make those jumps. Especially not with an SIS agent. 

The Commander was on the list, because of course she was. Sana-Rae, if he could find a convincing reason to go to Voss. Lana...Lana was a good bet but not yet, not until her loyalty to Arkous had eroded a bit. There were a few others that he had worked closely with who would be good allies if he could figure out the best way to convince them that he knew what was coming. 

And, unfortunately, there was the Wrath of the Empire. 

He was at the top of the list. 

Every time Theron thought of the list and came to the realization that Wrath would be the easiest to contact, he had the same full body feeling of regret. And he had to keep thinking about it, because Theron had a pretty small window between Wrath becoming the easiest to convince and becoming...well...Wrath. 

So far, Nomen Karr was still alive, which meant that Wrath hadn't recruited Willsaam yet, which meant he'd have no reason not to just kill a random SIS agent who popped up to ask him to do some admittedly random shit. 

Oh, and also to betray the emperor. 

It was going to be a hard sell. 

* * *

As tempting as it was to go to Tython and tell the jedi what would happen if they 'killed' Vitiate, he avoided it. If Vitiate didn't die, then a lot of Theron's information became useless almost instantly, and it wasn't like the assassination had _prevented_ him from eating a bunch of planets. For all Theron knew, both times the commander had stabbed the emperor had been part of some intricate plan laid out entirely by Vitiate himself. 

So he left well enough alone. 

Which of course meant that the day the emperor was due to have his Voice assassinated by the commander came and went, with no dead imperial puppets. 

* * *

The moment he got off the shuttle on Tython he knew two things. First, that the commander (not commander anymore, he'd have to call her something else) wasn't even attempting to be subtle about meeting with him, since she was standing right there. 

And secondly that if someone else had travelled back in time, it wasn't her. 

Theron was holding out hope for Lana being the other time traveller. They had worked out their issues pretty thoroughly by now and both had basically one allegiance. 

"Hi!" the Jedi said brightly, smiling at him with her friendly-to-allies smile. 

"Hi," Theron said, instinctively falling into wariness without meaning to. This wasn't the first time in this mess that someone who he knew hadn't recognized him, but somehow it felt especially uncanny in this case. 

Maybe because he had spent so long learning the Jedi's subtle tells, just in case Valkorion had managed to take over her mind instead of haunting it. 

That hadn't happened, and wouldn't happen, but it meant that this situation was ringing some dormant alarm bells. 

She, luckily, didn't try to have an entire conversation about time travel in a shuttle bay that could have been bugged to hell and back by Revanites, and instead led him further into the temple into...another room that logically could have been bugged to hell and back by Revanites. 

They'd have to make do. A quick scan didn't show much, and the Jedi could sense some things like that, so it was realistically unlikely that even the Revanites would risk bugging every room. There would be a few discreet bugs in the most essential places. Or, more likely, people who had been swayed into being spies or straight up converted would watch the old fashioned way. 

"Okay," the Jedi said, closing the door and looking a bit more serious. "Scourge was able to verify most of the information you sent as proof and I know who you are and your rough background, so I'm going to trust that you're being entirely truthful with me." 

"If I'd known it would be this easy, I would have just contacted you earlier." 

"Why didn't you?" she asked, sitting down and waving Theron to another chair. "Even without Scourge as backup, we have other ways to verify that someone is telling the truth." 

"Yeah, ways that are pretty invasive. I didn't want to get in a situation where it was more important for me to be here giving information than out fixing things on my own terms." 

"Mm." She tapped her fingers on the table. "That's fair. I suppose. Were you just going to go it alone, then?" 

"I have a list of people who might believe me if I go about it the right way." 

"And I wasn't on it." 

"You were, actually. I was just assuming I'd need to go about it more carefully." 

"Okay," the Jedi said. "What was your next move?" 

"Solve some personal missions a bit smarter than last time, then make moves to deal with Revan." Specifically, with the Revanites, but he didn't want that information out in the air right yet. 

"Scourge said that you might know the actual list of names we need to worry about, with the Revanites," the Jedi said. "Do you?" 

Theron sighed. "You realize your whole temple could be compromised, right?" 

She just smiled at him serenely. "Don't worry, it's handled. There's a reason why I had you come here to talk with me instead of communicating over holo. They think you're being added to the task force to help me take down Vitiate. Since they have people in the SIS, they should know enough about you to be pretty convinced of that. And, considering your mom? It looks like the normal jedi process of mostly involving people we already know and trust. So, do you?" 

"I do, but if you take them out immediately they'll just know you're onto them." 

"I'm not _stupid_ ," she said, sounding offended. "I know that. I just need to know who they are so we can start keeping an eye out for all the little things they're likely already doing to lay the groundwork. Some of them might not even be recruited yet. Most of them, probably, it sounds like things ramped up a lot after Revan got involved." 

"Fine. I've got a pretty solid list, some of them with timelines. It's not the whole army, but it should be a good start." 

"Imperial side too?" 

"Yeah." He hesitated. "But if we interfere too quickly with any of that, we might lose an important ally. I don't know if just telling her with evidence will be enough to get her to turn." 

Especially since this was quickly becoming a much more firmly republic project than before. 

"We'll be careful." She promised. "Is there anyone you _can_ contact?" 

"Do you still have access to Voss?" 

"Yeah." 

"Then that's one. A few jedi…" He needed to figure out what to do about Master Surro. Just not dragging her into the mess that was Ziost might be enough. 

"And some sith," the Jedi said, with an air like she was assuming she was finishing his thought. "I've already got one on my side, I'm not about to balk at more allies from that direction." 

"The first one involves letting a padawan go," he countered dryly. "It's important, but you might have some objections." 

She frowned at him. "Well of course I do when you put it like _that_!" 

Maybe he should have left the whole subject alone, but starting off this job with a lie would...it wouldn't go over well. Scourge would already have told her about his fake defection and he didn't need 

"Noman Karr is falling fast over a personal grudge, the sith I need to recruit is pushing that faster just by wrecking all his plans. Karr's _padawan_ can see people's true selves, which Karr is using to identify spies. Wrath is going to turn her sight on him." 

"Wrath." 

"Well, not yet." 

"To be clear, you're meaning this is the next Wrath of the Emperor?" 

Theron relaxed a bit. She'd picked up enough that he had her. "Yup." 

"But to get his help, we would have to let a padawan fall?" It was incredibly clear just from her tone that she was absolutely balking at that idea. 

"No, just Karr. And Wrath sends him back here so you can...rehabilitate him or whatever it is you do with fallen jedi. Jaesa Willsaam stays light side, just...sithy." 

"Sithy." She let out a frustrated breath. "Lightsided, and sithy. Under the purview of a _Wrath of the Emperor_." 

"This is an especially weird variety of sith." 

"I'll say. This sith knows what she can do, doesn't he? Can't we just...use that without risking the padawan? Explain the situation to her and have her talk to him." 

"Only if I wanted Nomen Karr involved," Theron retorted. "Which I don't. He has his own grudges and a set way of doing things. You don't want him involved with this." 

"You're pretty invested in this Sith," the Jedi pointed out dryly. 

"Not really? He's powerful and effective. I'd rather that on our side than on Vitiate's." 

"There are a lot of powerful Sith." She got an almost crafty look in her eye "It might even be to our advantage to leave someone with some sort of principals as Wrath. Why not just call up Nomen Karr's padawan now and avoid meddling? You wanted to keep things mostly the same as before, right?" 

"If we call up Jaesa we lose Wrath." 

"She could help us identify revanites. And if we leave things as they are, we lose Master Nomen Karr." 

"You're losing him anyways." 

The Jedi threw up her hands. "But if we do nothing we _lose a padawan_ to a Sith!" 

"It seemed to work out for her." 

"Theron!" 

"If we do this right, you get the sith and the padawan back as a package deal." 

She heaved a big sigh. "You have a lot of trust in this sith. With Vitiate alive, there's no way of knowing that he'll stay on the same path." 

Theron frowned. "I really don't trust him much. Wrath is a time bomb. A _loyal imperial_ time bomb. We just need him on our side for as long as possible and I think that's feasible to achieve." 

"Not much of a bomb if you think you can convince him." 

"He trusts Jaesa, or at least Jaesa's abilities. If you make contact and explain things, she'll be able to see that it's the truth. You'll just need to go in with a heavy tilt of it being the only way to save the empire, since that's what his motivations are." 

"Oh now _I'm_ the one going in?" She leaned back in her chair, raising an eyebrow at him. "I thought you were." 

"That was the plan, but that was when I thought I was on my own. It makes more sense to hand this off to you. You've always been the one who's good at talking people onto your side." 

The Jedi snorted inelegantly. "Talking has never been my strong suit so I doubt that. And I doubt even more that having a Jedi approach a recently defected padawan will go well. If you had a plan that you thought would work to persuade them, you should stick with it." 

"Five seconds ago you were against this whole plan." 

"I have a vested interest in not enabling a future where the emperor eats a planet and then billions of people die in a galactic war even worse than the one we're currently fighting," she answered. "I'm still against the plan. I'm very against the plan. I can also see that gaining a powerful ally without actually losing anyone--at least not in a meaningful way-- is the best path forward. If you're right about how things are happening, then Nomen Karr has already started to fall and Jaesa is going to find out eventually. We can't prevent Nomen Karr from falling without, as you pointed out, involving him. Assuming we could do that at all. And we can't prevent Jaesa's pain, not even if we warn her. So...we'll try to mitigate it while also being careful who finds out that we have information about the future." 

"You weren't exactly being subtle earlier." 

She shrugged. "I was meeting a known SIS agent who has ties to the Jedi. What's suspicious about that? If anyone even noticed, they'll assume you're helping me figure out how to take down Vitiate. Which, _you are_." 

"Do you have a plan for that?" 

"Nope!" 

Theron sat back, giving her a blank look. 

She shrugged. "We decided that the previous plan wasn't worth the losses. So, we'll figure out a new plan. If we can mitigate the immediate dangers then we can deal with whatever happens after that with the advantage of context we didn't have the first time. Plus…" she hesitated, then pushed on. "Plus, Scourge still has his emotions back." 

It took Theron a moment to realize the significance of that. "His emotions coming back was a big indication that Valkorion really was dead." 

"Yeah." 

"We might have jumped the gun on that assumption." 

"Yeah," she sighed. "He's kind of freaked out about that. It's a lot of the reason why I decided not to try to keep things on the same path, because just that adds in enough uncertainty that I can't be sure we even know the path we're on." 

"That's an understatement." 

"With that in mind, I agree with you that not letting Vitiate have another Wrath is probably a good idea. Especially since this one never had to work with him directly, so he might suddenly become much more dangerous and harder to sway after actually meeting Vitiate one on one. I _don't_ agree on letting Jaesa walk into what's essentially a trap blind, but...most of what your Wrath used to sway her was true, wasn't it? So...we let most of it happen, contact her to add a new element to it, and let her bring Wrath to us." 

"That sounds far easier than this is going to actually be." 

"It's the only way I'll agree to let most of it happen untouched." 

"Fine." Possibly a disaster, but...fine. It wasn't like this was the first mission that he'd needed to adjust because the Jedi was too moral to go with the initial plan, and he almost always ended up preferring her outcomes. That was the whole reason why he'd stuck with her in the first place. 

"And then we'll _both_ have a Wrath to help us while we figure this out!" she added brightly. 

"They aren't collectables," Theron said, biting back a laugh. 

"Good thing, since there's only two." 

* * *

Getting transferred to secret Jedi missions was...inconvenient in some ways. Mostly in that it meant that the missions he'd been planning to do better before the Revanites sent everything to hell were now in someone else's hands. 

He sent in some carefully anonymous tips and hoped whoever had those tasks would take it seriously and avoid the mistakes that he had made. 

Otherwise, it was a bit of a weight off. It didn't matter that he was taking unsanctioned forays into Sith territory or requesting information that might look suspicious, because he was under Jedi supervision and everyone just assumed he was on the 'Kill Vitiate' task force. The people with high enough clearance to ask 'Why him' also had high enough clearance to look at Theron's past missions and go 'That's why'. 

If he got really technical about it, he was absolutely on a 'Kill Vitiate' task force. It was just a bigger and harder task than anyone else in the Empire or Republic could possibly be aware of. 

* * *

He kept expecting Wrath's recruitment to blow up in their faces. In the original timeline Wrath had been distant with the jedi, and outright suspicious of Theron. Theron figured that the distrust of him had been earned, but the fact that Wrath had stayed distant even after so many reasons to trust her was...probably a bad sign. On the other hand, he had stuck with them while they were struggling to remain neutral in an increasingly impossible situation. So maybe he was just like that. 

The Jedi's usual luck held, somehow. Which they found out in the form of a holocall. 

"Hm," the Sith said, looking almost intrigued as he focused on Theron entirely. "You're early." 

That really wasn't a reaction that Theron had been prepared for. 

* * *

"How many time travellers do we have, exactly?" the Jedi asked plaintively. 

"Three." Wrath said, dryly. 

"You can't be sure of that. Scourge thought it was just him, and Theron thought it was just him--" 

"And I thought it was just me until I realized that the two people who I was investigating also found their consciousnesses waking up in the past." Wrath shrugged, as though he hadn't just dropped some incredibly relevant information. "So I'd suggest we proceed as though it's just us three." 

"Investigating?" 

"Possible traitors." 

"They aren't traitors!" the Jedi protested indignantly. 

"And that is why I did not tell you that I was investigating anything." 

"Did you tell Lana?" Theron asked. He'd thought that he'd proved himself enough that she at least knew what he had pulled off, especially considering the different spy games they had pulled on each other in the whole mess leading up to Nathema, but…. 

"No." 

"Did you think Lana was a traitor too?" the Jedi snarked, despite having no idea who Lana was. 

"No. Just those two. You _were_ told that he 'pretended' to betray you, yes? Pretended in ways that were incredibly reckless with your life? I had to make sure." 

"Scourge didn't do any of that, though," she protested. 

Theron felt a little twinge of indignation that she hadn't even tried to defend him...but he could argue that later. He _had_ made sure that the commander wouldn't be at risk when he 'defected', he'd been very careful of that. Sure, a lot of it had relied on her abilities and luck, but Theron had never had any doubt that he was riding the careful line between keeping her safe and being convincing. 

Her lack of surprise probably meant that Scourge had caught her up on the whole situation. Which was...it was fine. She was still working with him and had less emotional connection to all of it. It was fine. 

"He suddenly regained emotions immediately after you destroyed the Emperor. That could easily be a convenient cover for possession." 

"He's not possessed. I would know! He's still...it's the same core person." 

Wrath shrugged. "Maybe he was always the emperor. Or maybe you're right and he's entirely himself just with a new set of emotions. Either way, I wanted answers. I looked for them. I found some. I looked too far, and here we are." 

"You're a real pessimist you know." The Jedi sighed. "But all in all, there's no harm done. We have a chance to do better this time and now you know they're trustworthy." 

" _Know_ is a strong word." 

"Can't you just turn Jaesa on them?" 

Wrath smirked. "She's not an evil detector. This is why you lost her in the first place." 

"I don't know why Theron wanted to work with you so badly if this is how conversations with you usually go." 

" _Did he_?" Wrath asked, smirking at Theron. 

"Not really but you're the one with the apprentice who can verify things." 

Wrath just laughed. "I need to go let my master betray me so I have a good excuse to murder him later. We'll talk once I'm done." 

"Are you planning to become Wrath again?" the Jedi asked. "That might…" 

"Be a horrible idea considering I have already betrayed the master that I would be swearing myself to? Yes, yes it would be." 

* * *

Theron put that whole...whatever that was, out of his head. 

He had five million things to fix, and now they had another ally to do that with. The important thing was that Wrath was on their side. As they started to carefully contact the very short list of people who would believe them...it felt less like one person against the future and more like the alliance again. 

He fully expected to not see Wrath again until he absolutely had to. It wasn't like they'd ever really had much to do with each other before, and Wrath had made it incredibly clear that he was suspicious of Theron. 

Which Theron had _known_ would be a cost of doing what he had done. It had been worth it, because overall it had prevented a lot of harm, but even fake betrayals came with consequences. 

So he was a bit surprised when he turned a corner on Dantooine, of all places, only to come face to face with very conspicuous Sith. 

Or, well, face to chest. And it was probably that the Sith just looked like a merc to any casual observer who didn't realize there was a lightsaber under his coat. 

"Fancy meeting you here," the sith purred out, with the face of someone who was absolutely not surprised at all to see who he was meeting. "I need you to help me deal with someone." 

"Uh, hi." Theron said. "With what exactly?" 

"I'm dismantling Baras' spy network to force him more fully into the Revanites," Wrath said, like that was a normal sentence that anyone would normally say and not a massive piece of new information. "He doesn't know it's me, of course, because he thinks I'm just a big dumb brute who died in a rockfall with Jaesa and Vette." 

"Since when is Baras a Revanite?" 

"Since about a month ago. He's manipulating his way up just like he always does." Wrath shrugged. "He's an opportunist and not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. All I had to do was arrange for him to see the opportunity and there he went. It's not like he could pretend to be the Voice with the original Voice still alive." 

"Right." Theron sighed. "What do you need from me?" 

"I'm heading to a party. I need you to plant some evidence." 

Theron frowned. That could mean a lot of things. "Can't Vette do your splicing?" 

"No, she's guarding Jaesa." 

"And Jaesa is…?" 

"Having dinner with her family." 

At Theron's sharp look, Wrath laughed. "Did you really think I'd hand them over to Baras again, knowing that I was going to betray him and take Jaesa with me? All I had to do was promise I would set them up as nobles somewhere and then pull strings on the first boring planet I was able to. They're happy, Jaesa's happy, and this place is so boring that if everything does go all to hell again they're unlikely to die in an Arcann induced fire." 

Theron was tempted to scold him for giving full explanations in the middle of _a sidewalk_ but once he paid attention there was an odd sort of energy around them that said Wrath was probably doing something else. What, Theron didn't know. With luck it was just making it harder for other people to listen in. 

It made a lot of sense for someone who had been apprenticed to Baras to have developed that sort of ability. It even made sense for Wrath to get used to using it constantly, especially now that he was maintaining the illusion that he was dead. 

It also unfortunately was so theoretically useful that Theron almost hoped that Wrath _was_ just standing there blithely spouting off more information than he should right out in the open, because that would mean he wouldn't have to ask Wrath to help on the dozens of different missions that he had just realized could suddenly be possible using that sort of ability. 

It was...pretty much zero possibility that Wrath being here right when Theron was here was a coincidence. It wasn't entirely suspicious that he knew what Theron was up to, but… "You could have contacted me, instead of tracking me down." 

"The hunt is more fun than a holocall." Wrath said breezily. "Are you coming or not?" 

Theron sighed. "Sure." 

"Good. 

* * *

What the Sith didn't tell him was that he was apparently going as Wrath's date to a sith party. 

There were very few places that Theron wanted to go _less_ than this, but the list was very short. 

None of the sith were dressed like sith. All of them looked out of place. The whole thing was absolutely bizarre, from the slightly outdated outfits, half of them in some sort of streetwear right beside people in gowns, to the fact that this was taking place on _Dantooine_. 

He would never, ever, understand what sith did. If this turned out to be some sort of murder cult he was going to be very annoyed. 

"Darth Xenox is an eccentric," Wrath murmured into his ear after they were let inside, one arm looped around Theron's waist. "We play by his rules here." 

"That's ominous." 

"His rules are mostly to not wear robes, not talk about politics, and to drink very weak alcohol. It's his...break. And if anyone breaks that illusion, he breaks them." 

Theron sighed. He had, at least, gotten the description of what he'd be hacking. Namely, he needed to adjust the target's holocall security just enough that the Darth's staff would notice. The staff were, apparently, very loyal. And this was a 'what happens in the weird sith party stays in the weird sith party' sort of deal, so Baras gathering blackmail material wouldn't go over well with Darth Xenox. 

He probably should have predicted the whole date thing. He was fairly sure some of the other 'dates' were locals who had been picked up with absolutely no idea what they were getting themselves into, if the very confused young man trying to explain farming was any indication. 

The sith around him that were pretending to be enthused by the conversation probably just made the whole experience incredibly creepy for any normal person who had gotten roped into this. 

Theron _really_ hoped this wasn't a blood sacrifice deal. 

"Ah, look who we haven't seen in awhile!" an older sith trilled, coming up to Wrath with a glass of wine and an affect that made it clear he was pretending to be drunk. He was also pretending to recognize Wrath even though he clearly did not. "Did they get you a room?" 

"No need," Wrath smiled. "We're visiting...family." 

Normally Wrath was a smoother liar than that, so it was probably a deliberate trip. It was probably meant to make it seem like he was trying to cover for having his own base here with something that seemed normal. Theron could tell that the old sith was testing Wrath's aura, probably trying to judge if Wrath was someone who deserved to be here and finding an awful lot of power. 

There was a lot that sith didn't care about, if it came with a lot of power. Apparently whether or not they actually knew the people who were coming to their strange roleplay getaway was one of those things. 

"Unless," Wrath said, turning to look at Theron with a smirk. "You'd _like_ us to stay for the night? Get away from your parents a bit?" 

The idea of his _parents_ on Dantooine with a presumably normal house where--okay even going that far into the scenario was enough to almost make Theron laugh. "They'd worry." Theron said. "We're supposed to be back for dinner, remember?" 

This was really fucking wierd. He wanted to just get to the point where he could hack into some spy's things and set him up to be wrecked by Darth Fake-drunk here, not roleplay a relationship with Wrath. 

Wrath smiled indulgently at him, an expression that had _no business_ being anywhere on Wrath's face, and then lifted Theron's hand up to kiss his fingers. 

Theron flushed slightly, flustered and not at all sure where this fit into the weird...this was just what Wrath thought normal couples did? Random finger kissing? Random 'maybe we should stay in the strange person's house to get away from parents'ing? Theron was not at all into it. 

At all. 

Definitely. 

Definitely not overly aware of the way that Wrath's fingers brushed over Theron's hand as he dropped it. 

Fuck. 

* * *

The mission went well. Or at least according to plan. He hacked the thing, the spy got killed, the locals got a bit traumatized at the sight of sith going from 'tell me about your farm animals do they eat children' to angrily murdering someone and then cheerily back to the farm animals. 

The whole thing probably could have gotten passed off as just a good bit of subterfuge against Baras with no one else having to know about any of the rest of it, if he hadn't made the mistake of telling the Jedi in hopes of at least some commiseration over how awkward it had been. 

Instead he ended up with Kira laughing her ass off, and the Jedi looking exasperated but amused. "I don't understand Sith at all," she said. "At least you had fun? And nobody died, except for that one guy and that was on purpose." 

"I did _not_ have fun," Theron said, baffled. 

"You got to go on a date, isn't that a good thing?" 

"That wasn't a date!" 

"It sounds like a date." 

"That was absolutely a date," Kira burst in, catching her breath between giggles enough to talk. "Your Wrath took you out on a strange sithy date." 

"I'm pretty sure he still wants to kill me." 

"I'm pretty sure he wants to f--" 

"Kira!" the Jedi scolded. 

"What, I'm right!" 

"Kira!" 

"You just want your own Wrath to take you on weird sith dates." 

"I do not!" 

"Why do you keep her around, again?" Theron asked. 

"Sometimes she's useful!" the Jedi huffed. "Sometimes!" 

"I'm a font of truth and honesty in a room full of liars," Kira said, before dissolving back into laughter. 

* * *

Theron put the whole mess out of his mind and focused on all the things he actually _needed_ to do. Wrath was focused on the Revanites. The Jedi was focused on Vitiate. That left everything else for Theron to worry about. 

Which meant he was right back to things that he couldn't actually do much to solve yet. They couldn't risk touching Zakuul until things there were already stirred up. They would have an advantage, since they knew where the Gravestone was and could hopefully avoid the Jedi being thrown into carbonite for five years by sidestepping that situation entirely but-- 

That got back into dealing with Vitiate. 

Everything did, really. It made sense, seeing as almost all of their major problem's were wound around the emperor. 

So Theron planned. He had ten different better ways to evacuate a planet when Vitiate inevitably decided to eat one, and some ideas on how to convince the Republic to prepare for that eventuality. He had a list of things he needed to do if the Order of Zildrog started to rise up again to destroy them before they could make trouble. He had plans to destroy the omnicannon if anyone seemed to be making moves towards Zildrog. He had 'Vitiate is back to eating worlds' contingency plans that _didn't_ involve bringing in anyone to make the situation worse. 

Eventually he ran out of plans, which meant that his options were to either join the Jedi in waiting to see what Vitiate would do and keeping an eye out for any movement from Zakuul, or… 

Or he could help Wrath. 

* * *

The timing, at least, seemed to work out. Baras was making moves to install himself as the head of the Revanites, successfully claiming some sort of _connection_ to Revan that probably would have backfired horribly if they had left things for long enough for Revan to decide to take control of the group himself. 

The idea was less to destroy the order entirely themselves, and more to make it obvious they existed and had spies everywhere so that the republic and the empire would do their job for them. That had worked well enough last time, it had just been _late_. 

The problem was that it mostly didn't involve any fights or even infiltration. It just involved arranging things so that Baras thought he could have a powerbase massive enough to win himself a dark council seat, while also arranging things so that one good shove would leave a lot of evidence for people to find. It would have been absolutely impossible, if they hadn't collectively memorized enough information that they knew exactly who to look for and then found more information from there. Darok kept things secret mostly by seeming entirely above reproach, as did Arkous. The jedi involved definitely didn't need to worry too much about security, especially if they used the thin veneer of messages that seemed innocent unless you knew the context behind them, because the Jedi Order really wasn't set up for the possibility of traitors. 

Theron had just sliced into them directly on Tython without much issue. 

If they timed the reveal of things right as Baras made a move for power, safe in the idea that he could have an open imperial powerbase with a secret reason for it, everything should unravel fairly easily. People who thought they were safely hidden, weren't. People who Baras wasn't even aware of could be exposed because they wouldn't be expecting it, and once there was enough evidence they could just hand over the list and then keep a close eye on Darkspanner as she stepped back in and tried to rebuild. 

Ideally, by the time Revan showed up the whole thing would be a mess, not something on the edge of a force that could take on the Republic and Empire (Or even just the empire, seeing as Vitiate was still sitting on that throne), and both forces would be aware of the threat. 

It was a weirdly hands off plan for a guy who had made his name by hitting things. 

It was also a weirdly friendly atmosphere. Like going on a fake date had made it so all of the tension had been forgotten. 

It put Theron on edge. 

"I really can't tell where I stand with you." Theron complained. 

Wrath smiled. Then he grabbed Theron by the shirt, lifted him up and slammed him against the wall. Theron grabbed as his arm as he struggled to breath and stabilize himself, but he may as well have been grabbing onto solid steel. 

"I've decided to trust you," the Sith purred out. "This time. If you betray us again, fake or not, I'll kill you." 

The Sith reached out a hand to brush his fingers across the side of Theron's face. Tenderly, like he wasn't pinning Theron to the wall with enough force that Theron's sternum was going to be bruised. "I'd suggest not pulling something like that again." 

"Wasn't planning on it," Theron gasped out. 

"I can never tell with you spy types," the Sith said, dropping him. "You'll say one thing and do another." 

"And you don't?" 

"I mostly do exactly what I say I'll do, people just never believe me until I do it." 

Theron snorted. "You spent a good five hours a few weeks ago pretending I was your date." 

"You _were_ my date." The Sith looked at him, then laughed. "See? This is what I mean. You're supposed to be smart." 

Theron scowled at him. "You don't have actual dates with people you want to kill." 

"You really do not understand Sith ways at all. Why would someone be worthy if they weren't a threat?" 

* * *

Theron didn't complain to Kira this time. He had learned his lesson there. He sort of wished Lana was around to provide some sanity that most sith _weren't_ like this, but there was just enough doubt that he probably wouldn't have asked her either. 

He did start seeding information for Lana to find, hoping it would be enough to prevent her from going down along with Arkous. She would know that the information came from someone, of course, but Wrath was insistent that Occlus, Marr, and Acina were trustworthy so...it wasn't too hard to imply the information was coming from one of their people. 

Lana would figure it out, eventually, of course she would, but leading her their way couldn't be a _bad_ thing. 

"We should go on another date," Wrath said idly, as they finalized their last plans. He was over holo this time, at least, so Theron didn't have to deal with the awkwardness of being in the same room. 

"That wasn't a date." 

"Of course it was a date! We went to a party, I asked you to dance which still counts even though you refused, we murdered someone, I kissed your hand...every essential element of a date was hit." 

"Murder is not an essential element." 

"It would be boring otherwise." Wrath smirked at him. "Don't tell me you don't like taking down an enemy. It's a rush. It's something to burn off." 

"I really cannot ever tell if you're serious or trying to get a rise out of me." 

"I'm always serious." Wrath hummed slightly. "We should go on another date after we crack open the Revanite's conspiracy." 

"No. I've had my fill of sith dates." 

"Well if you'd rather we could just fuck." 

Theron glared at him, flushing, and then reached out to turn off the holocall. 

* * *

Sith were arrogant and annoying and he was regretting this whole messed up timeline. 

Theron absolutely was not considering it. 

* * *

Actually taking out the Revanites was...anticlimactic, compared to the last time. This was the seeds of what would eventually become a galaxy spanning force, and it died with a whimper. 

Or at least was cut back significantly. He helped apprehend a few turned SIS agents, while the Jedi helped...whatever it was that jedi did with jedi who had secretly turned allegiances. On the Republic side it went down quietly. 

On the Imperial side it went down loudly, until it didn't. There was a new Wrath who was unleashed so soon after they made their move that it could have been coordinated. Theron's Wrath didn't get to destroy Baras, not this time, but apparently the man was fated to go down to the blade of someone bearing that name. Then all the cracks they'd been hammering in started breaking open and Imperial Intelligence set to work. 

Hopefully Lana escaped the fallout. 

Arkous sure didn't. 

The dust settled, a shitton of paperwork was done, Theron paced around for a few hours a day worrying about how despite all this they hadn't _actually_ prevented anything yet and for all they knew Vitiate was watching all of this while laughing his sithy ass off (or worse, also had memories from the last timeline). 

Then he finally gave in and called his Sith. 

"Taking me up on that victory fuck?" The Sith smiled at him. "That's somewhat difficult over holocall." 

"I really, really, hate you sometimes." 

"Good, that's how it should be." 

Theron sighed. "I'm taking you up on it but I want you to know that I'm really annoyed about it and already regretting the decision." 

Wrath laughed and hung up on him. 


End file.
